Medicare for All
93 episodes - English - Latest episode: 26 days ago -Benjamin Day and Gillian Mason of Healthcare-NOW break down everything you need to know about the social movement to make healthcare a right in the United States. Medicare for All!
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Episodes
Build Back Better & Healthcare for the Homeless
December 08, 2021 18:46 - 45 minutes - 40.2 MBThis week, we’re teaming up with the Poverty Policy Podcast and the National Healthcare for the Homeless Council for a crossover episode! We discuss the Build Back Better bill and weigh its potential impact on individuals experiencing poverty and houselessness. Show Notes The National Health Care for the Homeless Council is a membership organization uniting thousands of health care professionals, people with lived experience of homelessness, and advocates working towards the goal of improvi...
Deep Canvassing
November 29, 2021 21:23 - 40 minutes - 30.5 MBThis week we're doing a “deep” dive into “deep canvassing,” a much-hyped, relatively new organizing tactic that focuses on engaging voters in empathetic conversations. Promising studies have shown that deep canvassing can be effective in reducing prejudice against marginalized groups and changing voter’s minds, even on hotly contested issues like immigration or transgender rights. But just how effective really is deep canvassing? And how can it be a tool in the fight for Medicare for All? Sh...
Mailbag: Stephanie’s Last Episode
October 31, 2021 11:00 - 39 minutes - 89.7 MBWe answer your questions about why we don’t have Medicare for All yet, interfacing with groups fighting for incremental reforms like Medicaid expansion, and more. Show Notes Starting with an easy one, many people asked: Why don’t we have Medicare for All yet? A few reasons: first, our political system is very different from most of the other countries that already have single payer. In the U.S. to make significant change, one party needs to control the Presidency, the House, and the Senat...
The State of Mental Healthcare
October 15, 2021 16:25 - 37 minutes - 86.9 MBToday we discuss the sorry state of mental healthcare in the United States, and the impact Medicare for All would have for people who need it. Our guests today are Dr. Beverly Smith, President of the American Mental Health Counselors Association and Guila Todd, Government Affairs Manager at the American Counselor Association. Show Notes The mental healthcare situation is especially dismal for the Medicare population, people with long term disabilities and senior citizens, According to t...
The Unseen Dental Crisis of Seniors
October 01, 2021 15:21 - 39 minutes - 36.4 MBThe American Dental Association (ADA) - the largest association of dental professionals in the country - are fighting against the proposal to add dental benefits to Medicare. We talk about the politics of ADA opposition to healthcare, and also hear from seniors themselves about what it's like to go without needed dental care. Dental care is not part of health insurance for most Americans, and the proposal to include dental benefits (as well as hearing and vision) in Medicare is running into ...
Are There “Multiple Pathways” to Universal Healthcare? Evidence from Europe
September 19, 2021 11:00 - 46 minutes - 42.7 MBAre the German and Dutch health insurance systems really private? What would it actually take to transition to a social insurance model? Once and for all, we debunk the myth that we can "build on the current public-private healthcare system" to achieve universal coverage. Show Notes Ben and Stephanie discuss Healthcare-NOW's recently-completed comprehensive comparison of public healthcare systems in the European Union. Much to the chagrin of the establishment - Medicare for All is the ca...
Drug Advertising: How to Make a Killing
September 05, 2021 11:00 - 27 minutes - 25.6 MBWith the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine receiving full approval from the FDA, and Moderna shortly behind, prepare for an unprecedented wave of drug advertising! This could have a positive impact with regards to vaccination rates, but drug advertising in the U.S. has a dark, deadly history. Joined by guest co-host Gillian Mason, we cover the surprising reasons our airwaves and social media are saturated with drug ads, and the lethal consequences we saw in the opioid epidemic, which was manufactured b...
Denials at the ER: A Profit-Making Precedent
August 13, 2021 11:00 - 33 minutes - 31.4 MBUnited Healthcare, the largest insurer in the US, announced this May that they may start denying claims from the ER if it turned out the visits were not actual emergencies. Like almost everything in our healthcare system, this policy doesn’t actually make sense on a moral or even a financial level. We discuss the surprisingly long history of this “new” policy, its implications and impact, and the pushback from doctors and patients. Show Notes Ben and Stephanie break down the latest evil pl...
Medicare Expansion Gains Momentum & Victories!
August 02, 2021 11:00 - 29 minutes - 67.4 MBLast podcast, we discussed expanding and improving Medicare, and since then there are a couple of major updates on the budget moving through Congress, with implications for the M4A movement! We also discuss the history of expanding and improving Medicare (or degrading, in the case of privatization). Show Notes Last podcast, we discussed expanding and improving Medicare - way back 2 weeks ago - it was really an uphill fight, with the Biden administration focused only on expanded subsidies fo...
Week of Action: Expand Medicare!
July 16, 2021 11:00 - 29 minutes - 27 MBCongress has an opportunity to make real steps towards Medicare for All this week. We go over the 4 proposed reforms that would expand Medicare, what’s at play and what’s at stake, the opposition to Medicare Expansion - if you can believe it - there IS opposition to giving seniors dental care - and what you can do to help pressure our legislators to fight! Show Notes Ben in Boston and international correspondent Stephanie in Denmark discuss the proposal to substantially expand and improve M...
Do Marches and Rallies Work?
July 02, 2021 11:00 - 43 minutes - 99.6 MBWe’re joined by L.A. Kauffman, author of How to Read a Protest: the Art of Organizing and Resistance. L.A. Kauffman was the mobilizing coordinator for some of the largest demonstrations in U.S. history -- the massive Iraq antiwar protests of 2003 and 2004 -- and has played key roles in many other movements and campaigns. Her book is about the role of marches and rallies in social movements, particularly large-scale mass demonstrations. Show Notes Today we talk tactics, and in particular, do...
Did Big Pharma or Governments Invent the COVID Vaccines?
June 18, 2021 11:00 - 16 minutes - 15.6 MBStephanie and Ben discuss who developed the vaccine; who is profiting from it; and the fight for global vaccine equity on this episode with guests David Mitchell of Patients for Affordable Drugs and Andrew Goldstein, a public hospital primary care doctor, assistant professor of medicine at NYU, activist, and organizer with the Free the Vaccine and People's Vaccine campaigns. Show Notes Who paid to develop the COVID-19 vaccines? Primarily taxpayers. David gives us a history lesson: before th...
Pharma’s Image Gets a Boost from COVID-19
June 07, 2021 18:41 - 32 minutes - 74.9 MB62% of people now have a positive opinion of drug companies, up from 32% in 2020. What's responsible for the sudden shift, and do pharmaceutical companies deserve this newfound adoration? We're joined by Shannon Rotolo, co-founder of Pharmacists for Single Payer and a clinical pharmacy specialist at the University of Chicago Medicine, to debunk industry lies about research and development, innovation, the market, and more. Show Notes Public opinion seems to be driven by the belief that phar...
Mailbag Episode: Listeners interview us
May 22, 2021 11:00 - 43 minutes - 40.3 MBIn our inaugural mailbag episode, Rose Roach - Executive Director of the Minnesota Nurses - joins us to answer your questions about how Medicare for All would save money and impact rural hospitals, how to answer to pushback on cost, talking to conservatives about Medicare for All, the political landscape, petitions as a base-building tool, and more! Show Notes Ben and Stephanie are joined by Rose Roach, the Executive Director of the Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA), and answer questions f...
Biden’s 1st 100 Days on Healthcare
May 07, 2021 16:48 - 33 minutes - 75.9 MBWe discuss Biden’s American Families Plan proposal, which Biden unveiled in his first State of the Union address last week (spoiler: it’s rather underwhelming) and the industry lobbying that made it happen. Then we discuss the proposal to expand Medicare that came from Reps and Senators - both progressives and moderates - and what it may signify in the fight for Medicare for All. Show Notes Today we celebrate Stephanie's first dose of vaccine and Biden's first 100 days. (Spoiler alert: #u...
The Koch Brothers: Behind New Strategy Against M4A?
April 23, 2021 01:15 - 28 minutes - 65.5 MBWe talk with Ben Palmquist from Partners for Dignity & Rights about a new anti-single payer bill in the Florida state legislature that would require a two-thirds supermajority to pass a single payer bill in the state. We segue into a larger conversation about the various opposition groups that have sprung up against Medicare for All and how the Florida bill is part of a trend of attacks on both healthcare and democracy. Show Notes Ben and Stephanie speak with guest Ben Palmquist, Program Di...
New York: Majority Support in House and Senate for M4A
April 11, 2021 02:14 - 32 minutes - 29.5 MBIn January, the Campaign for New York Health made single payer history in the United States: the bill secured the support of a majority of co-sponsors in both chambers of the New York State legislature. Campaign organizers Ursula Rozum and YuLing Koh Hsu join us to discuss how NY got here and the very real chance to win Medicare for all at the state level! Show Notes The Campaign for New York Health recently achieved a huge majority of cosponsors of the New York Health Act in the State Asse...
Record-Breaking Launch of the Medicare for All Act
March 30, 2021 18:15 - 31 minutes - 72.7 MBRep. Pramila Jayapal re-introduced the Medicare for All bill last week with a record 112 original cosponsors - up now to 114. We talk about surprise sign-ons, powerful stories from the cosponsoring Reps, the first national endorsement of a hospital CEO, and the epic organizing effort that got us to this stage! Show Notes Representative Pramila Jayapal introduced H.R.1976 on March 17th, with a record number of original co-sponsors on the bill: 112. That represents a majority of the Democrati...
The 2021 Medicare for All Bill
March 23, 2021 03:00 - 31 minutes - 29.2 MBWe’re joined by Stephanie Kang, Rep. Pramila Jayapal’s Health Policy Director, to discuss the upcoming 2021 Medicare for All bill, which will be shortly reintroduced in Congress. Kang also discusses changes made to the membership rules of the Progressive Caucus, and the most effective way to lobby your legislator during COVID! Show Notes We are excited to speak with Stephanie Kang, DrPH, MS, the Health Policy Director from the office of Representative Pramila Jayapal. Kang is one of the nat...
The Road to a Floor Vote on Medicare for All
March 04, 2021 19:53 - 33 minutes - 31.2 MBIn the House, we have about half of the cosponsors we need to pass Medicare for All. Democrats who are not currently cosponsors (and constitute the other half we need to win) represent districts that are whiter and wealthier than the districts we’ve already won. What does this mean for our movement and how do we organize in this next phase?
Healthcare in the Netherlands: Public or Private?
December 30, 2020 18:50 - 54 minutes - 74.9 MBIs the supposedly “private" Netherlands healthcare system a model for the US? And what would it take, politically and in terms of concrete policy, to transition to this system? Dr. Kieke Okma, an expert on healthcare systems around the world, joins us to discuss how exactly the Dutch healthcare system works (to start: its 80% publicly financed), the nature and extent of the privatization reforms made over the past 15 years, and the effect those reforms have had on the healthcare system. We di...
Racial Justice and Medicare for All
December 01, 2020 16:58 - 44 minutes - 61.3 MBThis week we chat with Dr. Bita Amani, an epidemiologist and Associate Professor for Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science and Lead Co-Chair of the COVID-19 Taskforce on Racism and Equity which is housed in the UCLA Center for the Study of Racism, Social Justice, and Health. We talk about how health played a role in the invention of race, and what structural racism in our healthcare system looks like right now. We also talk about health inequities and what Medicare for All will f...
Should we support the individual mandate?
October 29, 2020 20:12 - 32 minutes - 44.4 MBPublic Citizen’s Eagan Kemp joins us as we dive into the history of the individual mandate (spoiler: it’s a conservative idea), why it disproportionately punishes low-income people, and how progressive taxation under a single payer plan would be much more equitable than our current flat premium system. We look back at how such a regressive idea came to be championed by Democrats, and then forward at the continuing legal challenges to the ACA that center around the controversial mandate. If th...
US Mail Not for Sale: The Fight for the USPS
October 15, 2020 21:55 - 30 minutes - 41.5 MBThis is how intertwined the Medicare for All and public mail movements are: if we had a national single payer system in place for the last decade, the USPS would be running a surplus. Steve DeMatteo of the American Postal Workers Union joins us to discuss the surprising connections between the postal service and our healthcare system, the political and financial obstacles that the USPS has faced under the Trump administration, and also how you can fight to protect this vital public service. ...
Canada’s Single Payer Prevails Against Privatization Attempt
September 23, 2020 18:32 - 27 minutes - 38 MBThis week we host Dr. Monika Dutt, Board member of Canadian Doctors for Medicare and a public health and family physician in Nova Scotia. She fills us in on the historic legal challenge to the Medicare program that was just decided by the Supreme Court of British Columbia. The plaintiff, a for-profit surgery clinic, sought to allow patients to pay more for quicker treatment; it would have opened the door to a two-tiered health care system that would draw resources away from the public system ...
Housing, Healthcare, and COVID-19
September 10, 2020 18:40 - 38 minutes - 53.2 MBBarbara DiPietro is the Senior Director of Policy at the National Health Care for the Homeless Council. She joins us this week to talk about what homelessness looks like in the United States, the wildly disporportionate incidence of COVID-19 in people currently experiencing homelessness, and how the dual crises of rising unemployment and insurance loss are making people more at-risk for becoming homeless. She explains why Medicare for All and the fight to make housing a right are interrelated...
Free Market Arguments against Medicare for All
August 24, 2020 20:52 - 33 minutes - 46.7 MBUniversity of Massachusetts economist Gerald Friedman talks about his recent debate at the Soho Forum with Sally Pipes, a leading figure in the conservative anti-single payer movement. He breaks down the major lines of attack used by the right against Medicare for All, including wait times, horror stories, and free market ideology. Show Notes This week we welcome Professor Gerald (Jerry) Friedman, economist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and author of many Medicare for All econ...
COVID-19 “Long Haulers”: Our System is Failing Them
August 02, 2020 16:45 - 32 minutes - 44.9 MBChelsea has had 66 doctor appointments to manage her enduring coronavirus symptoms, which are appearing in almost every system of her body. She discusses the support group that she started to connect people struggling with the physical, mental, logistical, and financial struggles of COVID long haulers. The experience has turned her into a Medicare for All supporter; listen to her reflect on what it looked like to see people struggle with poor or limited healthcare access. Show Notes Stephan...
Solidarity Forever: a Labor History of Medicare for All
July 28, 2020 19:36 - 49 minutes - 68.4 MBMark Dudzic, National Coordinator for the Labor Campaign for Single Payer, joins us again to take a deep dive into the recent history of Medicare for All organizing within the labor movement, including the political calculations made during the failed Clinton health reform push, the changing landscape for unions through the Affordable Care Act, labor’s role in the creation of the center-left Healthcare for America Now (HCAN), and the direction labor is moving in the Sanders/Biden era. Show N...
Labor and Medicare for All, Part I
June 30, 2020 20:24 - 28 minutes - 38.8 MBMark Dudzic, National Coordinator of the Labor Campaign for Single Payer Healthcare, talks about his experiences as a union president that led him to become a Medicare for All activist. He answers our questions about the conflicts in the labor movement over Medicare for All that played out in the presidential primary, the Supreme Court decision in Janus vs AFSCME, COVID-19 and the Democrat’s COBRA proposal, and more. Show Notes On the pod today, is our special guest Mark Dudzic, National Co...
The Longterm Care Crisis in the United States
June 05, 2020 21:45 - 31 minutes - 42.9 MBWe talk with Linda Benesch of Social Security Works about the state of longterm care in the United States - the skimpy coverage provided by public programs like Medicare and Medicaid, the outrageous costs, the for-profit corporations running the vast majority of our nursing homes, and the people - the 70% of Americans who will eventually need longterm care - who are left behind. We explore how Medicare for All would finally establish longterm care as a right and ensure our dollars are spent o...
Longterm Care in Denmark vs the United States
May 21, 2020 20:53 - 34 minutes - 47.9 MBStephanie’s father-in-law, a Danish citizen, is currently moving into assisted living just outside of Copenhagen. His flat is only $1,000 per month, and the home help and rehabilitation he’ll receive is totally free of charge. We wondered about the differences between the U.S. and Denmark’s longterm care system, so we invited a special guest to join this episode: Jon Kvist, a professor at Roskilde University and expert on Danish social welfare systems. We talk about how the Danish longterm ca...
New Sanders/Jayapal bill: the Healthcare Emergency Guarantee Act
May 07, 2020 19:25 - 34 minutes - 47.9 MBNext week, Medicare for All lead sponsors Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Pramila Jayapal will introduce a bill that will authorize Medicare to fully cover medical costs for the uninsured until we have a widely available vaccine for COVID-19. The bill would also provide wrap-around coverage for everyone on public or private insurance. We contrast this bill to the other two healthcare proposals competing for a place in the next relief package. The Koch brothers are trashing Medicare for All with ...
Progressives propose Medicare for the Uninsured; Pelosi proposes COBRA subsidies
April 15, 2020 19:34 - 30 minutes - 41.5 MBIn response to the COVID-19 crisis, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Pramila Jayapal draft a bill that would expand Medicare to all who are uninsured for the duration of the crisis. Nancy Pelosi introduces a bill that would cover the full cost of premiums for people who lost employer-sponsored health insurance. Unfortunately, that accounts for less than 4 million of the 35 million and counting who are uninsured right now. Show Notes Rep. Pramila Jayapal and Sen. Bernie Sanders introduce a bill ...
Bernie drops out, COVID-19 rages on
April 09, 2020 18:40 - 34 minutes - 47.3 MBWe take a look at the impact that Bernie Sanders campaign had on the Medicare for All movement. COVID-19 brings out the pinko commie in NY Governor Andrew Cuomo, who decides to socialize the NY hospital systems. People of color are, as with everything health-related, hit disproportionately by the effects of COVID-19, with blacks being diagnosed and dying in greater numbers than all others. Show Notes Bernie Sanders drops out of the Presidential race, and Ben & Stephanie reflect on his impac...
COVID-19: millions lose their job – and health insurance – during a pandemic
April 03, 2020 22:56 - 39 minutes - 54 MBCOVID-19 reveals what we knew all along: that employment-based health insurance is messed up. In this episode, we explore the consequences that unjust policies and an inadequate safety net have brought to bear in the face of a public health crisis. Joe Biden also takes some heat for doubling down on his opposition to Medicare for All. Show Notes The M4A podcast is back! We were down for 3 weeks while coronavirus took out our recording studio, but Ben & Stephanie recorded episode 8 from the ...
Super Tuesday, the “Electability” Argument, Workers’ Rights, Elizabeth Warren & the Tax Problem
March 10, 2020 19:34 - 41 minutes - 56.8 MBMedicare for All wins Super Tuesday, even if its most loyal candidates did not. The stock market - especially healthcare stocks - freaked over Sanders's rise, and then stabilized after Biden’s comeback. Profits safe! Gillian Mason, Director of Massachusetts Jobs with Justice, talks about giving power back to workers with Medicare for All. Elizabeth Warren’s descent in the polls is attributed to her support of Medicare for All, but really was it? We end with Warren’s eloquent takedown of Pete ...
South Carolina, Coronavirus, Wonk Wars, and Organizing Victories
March 03, 2020 20:29 - 36 minutes - 49.8 MBJoe Biden wins his first, and so far only, primary with the help of Medicare for All supporters. Trump’s team doesn’t believe in the coronavirus, but if it does exist, Medicare for All would make it worse (?!?). Centrist policy experts trash the Yale Medicare for All study and then trash the entire policy of Medicare for All for good measure. Stephanie birddogs Joe Kennedy at an event for the Patients over Profits Pledge, and Connecticut passes its first municipal resolution in favor of Medic...
The Culinary Union Upset: Nevada debate and primary results, Medicare for All studies, and GoFundMe
February 25, 2020 16:23 - 28 minutes - 38.6 MBNevada’s largest and most influential union bucks leadership to support Medicare for All; new study from Yale economists is added to the extensive body of research arguing Medicare for All would save lives and billions of dollars; Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar’s healthcare plans finally receive some scrutiny, thanks to Elizabeth Warren Show Notes The Nevada Democratic debate turns into a blood bath! Elizabeth Warren goes after the healthcare plans of Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg - pl...
Launching “Patients over Profits”; Nevada’s Culinary Union attacks; John Oliver takes on the public option
February 19, 2020 22:07 - 29 minutes - 41.5 MBNational Nurses United and partners launch a new campaign to expose and fight back against industry influence in the Medicare for All debate, inspired by the No Fossil Fuel Money pledge led by Sunrise and other climate change organizations. We’ll tell you how to get involved. The Nevada Culinary Union has come out hard against Medicare for All - but how does their plan stack up against M4A? Andrew Yang Drops out of the Presidential race, ending the most dramatic about-face on Medicare for Al...
It’s a socialist takeover: Trump’s SOTU, the Democratic debates, and Parasite!
February 11, 2020 19:35 - 38 minutes - 53.8 MBDonald Trump’s State of the Union address includes some good old fashioned red-baiting re: Medicare for All. Centrist Democrats vying for the party’s nomination pile on, albeit from different angles, at the New Hampshire debate. Parasite wins big at the Oscars!! Show Notes Ben dedicates the show to everyone who needs healthcare. Stephanie would like to exempt the makers of the Iowa caucus reporting app, who have kicked off the primaries by undermining our national faith in democracy (and De...
Iowa: Medicare for All Battleground
February 04, 2020 17:02 - 28 minutes - 39.6 MBPACs are advertising in Iowa not only for candidates - but also against Medicare for All. Listen in on some of the ads and break them down with us. Also - an update on where California is on establishing a state single payer healthcare system. Show Notes This week Stephanie would like to exempt Michael Bloomberg from our Medicare for All plan, after he was shoe-horned into the Democratic debates, because of... he's rich. The Iowa caucuses are underway as Ben & Stephanie are recording, and ...
Introducing: Medicare for All
January 16, 2020 19:52 - 7 minutes - 11.1 MBThe very first episode of the "Medicare for All" podcast! Ben & Stephanie talk about their struggles to access and afford healthcare in America, and how they became organizers in the Medicare for All movement. Finally, they talk about what they'll be brining to listeners on the Medicare for All podcast! Show Notes Ben dedicates the episode to everyone who needs healthcare - Stephanie asks to leave out Rand Paul, who says that universal healthcare is the same as slavery. Stephanie talks abo...